Gone
by Gotta love Black
Summary: One-shot. Vaughn is gone and Chelsea feels dead. Was that stupid fight really worth it? WIll she ever see him again?


**Disclaimer: I do not own these character, I merely own various of these wonderful games.**

**AN: I hope you enjoy this one-shot. Constructive criticism is always welcome. **

"There, that should be the last of it," Chelsea happily told her four year old son as she scrubbed down the last feeding bin. Smiling proudly, she looked around the now-sparkling barn and laughed as Lorcan tried to pull old Bessy's tail. The wise cow merely swayed the appendage from side to side keeping it out of the little boy's reach. "Come on sweetie, we have to go home and get ready!" the blue-eyed farmer called out to her son from the barn's entrance.

Checking her watch she realized it was already two p.m. _'That gives us four hours to get everything ready' _she thought as she held Lorcan's tiny hand on their way back to the house, she smiled down at her baby that had helped her get the chores done. With Vaughn gone things seemed to drag on for her. _'Gone' _that one word struck her heart with pain and sorrow, and the normally cheerful farmer would have broken down in tears if it weren't for the hand grasping her's so tightly.

"How about we take a bath together?" Chelsea needed to distract herself quickly.

"Yay!" Lorcan squealed happily and dashed ahead of his mother. Laughing the farmer ran after him and raced him the rest of the way to the house.

After the nice, relaxing bath, Chelsea had sat Lorcan down on her bed and handed him a couple of coloring books while she began preparing dinner. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Count jump on the bed next to him. Shaking her head bemusedly she allowed the boy to keep the dog on the bed while he colored in his next master piece. With a quick glance at the fridge, she considered ordering a new one from Gannon, this one was completely covered in drawings already.

By six the table was laden with many of Lorcan's favorite dishes. Chelsea had outdone herself in the kitchen by making pizza, sandwiches, steamed buns, omelet rice, rice meal, pineapple juice, mixed latte, cheese cake, ice cream and, of course, pudding, only one lone plate of porridge remained untouched by the insatiable child. Yes she was overindulging her child but she was determined to do whatever she pleased on her and Vaughn's anniversary. _'Gone' _the word flashed through her thoughts as her eyes landed on the porridge, she hadn't been thinking when making that one dish, after six years of marriage it was just second nature to make it. Suddenly feeling nausea she pushed her own plate of pudding towards her brown-haired baby, who happily took his favorite dish and gobbled it down.

_'For Lorcan, yes everything for Lorcan now'_ she reminded herself as she watched him with guarded eyes. It had taken a lot of work to keep Lorcan from fretting too much, and even with her own emotional turmoil, Chelsea had managed to keep the boy calm during the past week and a half. "Lorcan, do you want to go over to grandma Mirabelle's tonight? She came by this morning asking if you wanted to spend the night." _'And make sure I was still alive. Have I really not left this ranch this whole time?' _she thought bitterly as her only son went to get his things ready.

Chelsea didn't mind that Lorcan would be spending the night at the kind woman's house, in fact she was rather glad the motherly lady had offered her help. No she was not upset with Mirabelle, she was furious with herself. Getting up she cleaned the table, unconsciously leaving one blue plate out, and quickly did the dishes. Once she was done she gathered her child in her arms and set off to her 'mother-in-law's' place. Relief flooded her when she said goodnight and left Lorcan in the much more capable hands of Mirabelle, at least now she knew he wouldn't be surrounded by her constant gloom.

Quietly she made her way home alone under the starless night. Despair constricted her chest when she finally made it home, loneliness took whatever breath she managed to force into her lungs. Her movements became mechanic as she sat opposite the lone plate of porridge at the table, she stared at the space behind it. It was empty, it had been since that day. Pain and guilt struck her in equal measures as she thought about it. They had been fighting.

"_For the last time no, Chelsea! I don't care!" Vaughn slammed the door behind him. Fuming the blue-eyed farmer silently thanked the Goddess that Lorcan was with Mirabelle that day._

"_How dare you slam the door in my face!" it wasn't a question, purple eyes glared at her from the other side of the house. Arms crossed across chests, they stared each other down, both too proud to back off._

"_No, and that's final."_

"_Come on Vaughn! You're practically her brother! It's the least you could do after everything they have done for us!"_

"_I am NOT going to be Julia's freaking maid of honor, damn it!"_

"_Vaughn!" she was quickly loosing all of her patience with her husband, and she longed for nothing more than to throw something at him. When Julia had first approached her with the ridiculous idea, Chelsea had nearly died laughing. However, once she calmed down she realized it made sense. Vaughn may not be a talkative man but over the years he had developed a family-like bond with the women who ran the animal shop so diligently. So it made sense that the one person Julia trusted enough for said job was the silver-haired animal dealer, which had lead to Chelsea agreeing to talk to him about it, she had not foreseen his utter rejection of the idea though._

"_I don't care, it's not going to happen! Even if Hell freezes over!"_

"_But there's no one she trusts more than you for this! I may be her best friend but you are like a brother to her!"_

"_Like, not a, LIKE a brother! Why can't I simply walk her down the aisle!"_

_"She wants Mirabelle to give her away!"_

"_We can trade jobs then!"_

"_She's her **mother**!"_

"_AND?"_

"_She should give her away! And you should do this for Julia. Oh, help me Goddess, can't you see how important you are for her!"_

"_I could care less!" and he brushed past her out the door. She had let out a long and had scream as she wished the inn would be entirely booked so he couldn't stay._

_But what had happened she had not wished for at all. It had been a Tuesday, so Vaughn would leave for business at dawn the next day and everything was fine, she was still pissed off but she knew he was alright...until a hurricane suddenly hit. She remembered the panic she had felt as se struggled to get Lorcan safely into the house and then left to make sure the animals were safely in. It hadn't been until she returned to their house that she realized, to her horror, Vaughn was probably still out at sea. Fear gripped her but Chelsea pushed it back as she cradled her child protectively in her arms, she whispered soothing words in his ears, words she desperately wished someone would tell her. That day and the next, she had gone without food or sleep, mechanically going through her chores with Lorcan watching her with concerned eyes. Finally at sunset she couldn't take it anymore and she ran off to the beach after leaving Lorcan under Noe's watchful eyes. No one but Taro was there, who looked at her with eyes full of pity and sorrow. There were no news of the boat._

Chelsea's heart squeezed painfully and her eyes burned, yet no tears fell. No her pain was beyond tears, tears would help nothing in soothing the deep ache. An ache that had manage to annihilate the majority of her heart in seconds. The only thing left was her love for her child, her and Vaughn's child. Instead of a heart, pain pumped blood through her body. Each and every day had been Hell to go through, she only managed to do enough to keep Lorcan safe and happy, telling him daddy was off on an unexpected business trip, if only she too could swallow up that lie. Feeling miserable she lay her head down on the table, pain, loss, guilt, regret, and sorrow all fought to have he privilege of crushing her chest. Lorcan wasn't here to suffer with her, he was safe with his grandma. _'Safe, I thought he was too...'_ no there was no reason to doubt Mirabelle.

"He's probably better off with her, than he will ever be with me now," she told the empty house. Surprisingly, her eyes had never left the space above the bowl, they didn't even shift when the clock struck ten o'clock. Night was dragging on slowly but Chelsea refused to go to sleep, a small smidgen of hope, that would surely be crushed come morning, remained that Vaughn would walk in the front door at any minute. But Chelsea knew no boats would sail so late at night to that small island.

The clock kept on ticking every second, every minute, every hour, and still Chelsea remained seated at the table, faced pressed against the wood and eyes fastened to the same spot. She was gone, heart lost to the army of dreadful emotions clamoring in it, so gone she didn't notice anything around her anymore.

"I just wish you knew how much I love you," her voice was hoarse with pain.

"And I love you too," answered an equally hoarse whisper behind her. However she didn't react to it, that would not have been the first time she had imagined Vaughn's voice. It wasn't until strong arms pulled her out of her chair and into a crushing hug that she realized she was not home alone. Heart rising to her throat, Chelsea reached shaking hands to the familiar black, cowboy hat and yanked it off the silver locks.

Deep purple eyes bore into her as, finally, tears ran down her face. For a week and a half she had been strong, for a week and a half she had shot down her own heart, for a week and a half she had longed to see this man again. Without speaking she grabbed him and pulled him down for a kiss, a kiss to convince herself that this wasn't some wicked dream. Still clutching her tightly, Vaughn kissed her with passion, relief, longing and love, and held it for as long as they could as if afraid breaking it would shatter a delicate illusion.

"Vaughn...I-Im so so sorry, please forgive me," Chelsea forced out between sobs and then broke down even more.

"Shh, everything is fine Chelsea. I'm back home..I'm sorry I couldn't come back sooner. But now I'm here, let's forget about all of this," he whispered soothingly. He was not a man who could deal with emotions, but Chelsea knew he was trying for her, and only for her. Smiling through her tears, she held onto Vaughn's jacket as he kissed her forehead.

"You're not gone," she stated relieved and happy. "Thank the Goddess, I will never let you leave me again Vaughn."

A small chuckle was all the response she got as Vaughn kept on hugging her.


End file.
